Chapter 246

[Now then, what do you think?]

The remains of the World Tree fall to the ground.

Massive debris crashes down with a monstrous sound.

Fluttering leaves decorate the ashen land, and small fragments scatter across the world like sleet.

Hope is shattered before their eyes.

That stark scene brought despair to the allied forces, a despair as if they were standing on the edge of a cliff with no way to resist.

It spread like a plague.

But that was only the beginning.

[Ah, come to think of it, you asked one more question.]

The sharp mouths on Baarma’s body sneered mockingly.

Baarma, standing beside the shattered World Tree as if amused—

[You were curious how I could appear before the World Tree now, weren’t you? The answer is simple. There’s a traitor among you.]

—smirked and dropped another truth no one wanted to hear.

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“A tr-traitor?”

“A traitor among us?”

The morale of the allied forces wavered again at those words.

Tens of thousands of eyes turned to each other with suspicion, deepening the already cracked unity of the alliance.

And that crack soon began to tear open rapidly.

As if someone had been waiting for this moment.

Because of the person who left the alliance and joined Baarma’s side in an instant.

“That can’t be…”

“…Ha.”

“This is insane—”

Surang and Ashur burst into incredulous laughter.

Groans erupted from the allied forces.

The person who appeared from Baarma’s side was—

“Kalanda…!!”

It was Kalanda, the king of the elves.

“Why would you betray us~!”

A face always filled with solemnity and goodwill.

But now, it was filled with malice no one had ever seen before.

He looked like a devil, smirking just like Baarma.

As the furious Surang shouted,

“Betrayal? Betrayal? That’s a strange word.”

Kalanda chuckled and looked down at Surang—no, the allied forces.

“I was never part of the alliance to begin with.”

“…Then don’t tell me… The World Tree was attacked to coincide with Lord Yongrin’s sacrifice—”

Kalanda didn’t respond to Surang’s words.

Instead, he stuck out his lips, turned his body, and bowed deeply toward Baarma.

“O great Baarma! Have you been well!”

His booming voice rang out.

The betrayal by the king was like a confirmation kill.

The elves’ eyes filled with intense hostility, betrayal, and despair.

But almost proudly, Kalanda raised his voice even more.

“I have faithfully carried out the mission your servant entrusted to me, and I am here to receive your blessing!”

[Heh—]

Baarma, smiling cryptically, walked up to Kalanda and looked down at him.

[So, you’ve completed all your tasks?]

“Indeed! I have always delivered the alliance’s information to you and provided a secret path to the World Tree.”

Kalanda shamelessly listed proof of his betrayal without the slightest guilt.

His words brought mixed emotions to everyone.

Baarma’s followers smiled even more,

While the alliance drowned in betrayal and despair.

And among them, the one who reacted the most intensely—

“A-Ahh—”

—was Magrina.

It had to be her.

As if she couldn’t believe what was happening, her despair-filled eyes widened.

Her speechless lips trembled.

“Therefore—”

On one side, there was ecstasy.

“Now that I have completed all my missions for you, please grant me what was promised, O great Baarma!”

On the other side, despair spiraled to the extreme.

And when everything was said and done, Baarma, watching the scene, said—

[Heh, yes, that’s right. I did promise you immortality in exchange for completing your task. I remember.]

“Indeed!”

Kalanda shouted joyfully at Baarma’s affirmation.

But—

[However, you haven’t completed all the tasks.]

“…Pardon?”

At those words,

Kalanda’s face briefly went blank.

He looked as if he didn’t understand.

But Baarma continued to sneer.

[That wasn’t the only command I gave you, was it?]

“…Th-that is…”

[Did you forget my final command? The task of preparing a body to host the birth of His black being.]

“O-Oh, Baarma! As I said, I intended to offer a high elf’s body—my own daughter’s body! I tried to corrupt her spirit in any way I could to make her worthy for the great ones, but that—”

Kalanda’s voice trembled violently.

A low gasp flowed from the elves.

“……”

Only then did Alon realize all the pieces were coming together.

Why the elves harbored such irrational emotions toward Magrina.

Why she, despite being the daughter of the king, had to suffer such horrors repeatedly.

Everything.

[I know your efforts. You even contacted the apostles and led your daughter to be captured by our tribe, didn’t you?]

“Y-Yes! There were some minor issues, but I did my utmost—”

Kalanda, with his hideous face, pleaded as if asking for recognition.

Baarma, looking down at him, wore an unusually serious expression.

And then—

[Yes. I fully understand your efforts.]

“Thank you~!”

[But—]

KWA-DUDUDUDUK!!

Without hesitation, he stomped and crushed Kalanda’s body.

With a chilling sound, dark red blood soaked the ashen land.

Under Baarma’s blood-red foot, who had only been smirking,

[In the end, that was a failure.]

Kalanda was instantly crushed and vanished.

####

Alon sensed it instinctively. The situation was at its worst.

No, it was worse than the worst.

He had experienced this once already while breaking through Baarma’s intense frontlines.

But undoubtedly, the current situation was many times worse than back then.

There were too many things the enemy had that they didn’t.

The morale of the alliance was at rock bottom.

He could even hear the sound of weapons dropping here and there.

Alon asked himself a question.

Could he change the tide of battle with the power he had shown last time?

Inside, he shook his head.

Back then and now may have looked similar on the surface, but there were far too many fundamental differences.

No matter how much they tried to boost morale, there seemed to be no way to counter the overwhelming number of cultists.

Even if they somehow managed to deal with all of them, Baarma was still there.

Just witnessing that being up close made Alon’s entire body tremble.

Baarma exuded a terrifying presence.

In other words, at this point, there was virtually no way to turn the situation around.

Yes, at this rate—

“Hoo—”

Alon let out a sigh and looked around.

Penia, frowning, was arranging her mana so she could cast magic at any moment,

While Rine, her face tense as she stared at Baarma, was preparing to summon Pluton to the battlefield without alerting the enemy.

But their efforts alone were not enough to change the tide of battle.

Something far greater was needed to overturn everything.

“……”

Alon fiddled once again with the item in his pocket.

When Baarma shattered the World Tree right before the alliance’s eyes—

A small realization flashed through his mind.

It wasn’t so much a realization as it was a connecting thread.

The thread that linked the advice he received through Dowon, and the information and interpretation Penia had spilled while reading.

Alon realized it when he saw the World Tree being destroyed.

But he couldn’t be sure it was truly the right choice.

It could just be a ridiculous delusion.

It could be a foolish waste of effort.

Still—

Squeeze—

Even so, he had to do it.

“……”

Alon took a step forward.

He walked past refugees staring ahead with eyes full of despair.

Past soldiers who had dropped their weapons out of helplessness.

Past commanders who glared forward, trying not to be overwhelmed by fear, even as their limbs trembled.

Past kings filled with betrayal and despair.

Past everyone—

And stepped forward.

Thus, standing before the entire allied army, he used up most of the mana remaining in his mana core and said, “Do not be afraid.”

It wasn’t a shout. Not a scream.

Not a battle cry.

Just a calm voice devoid of emotion, carried by mana and spread across the allied forces.

All eyes turned toward him.

Just that one utterance consumed nearly a third of his mana.

But it didn’t matter.

Because it was worth that much.

Alon took out the object he had been fiddling with since earlier and looked at it.

It was a seed, small and round like a fruit.

When he had headed toward the root of the World Tree— after dealing with the Ash Seeder, deep within the World Tree, he had received it.

A seed of the World Tree.

“Simply have faith.”

Again—

Using another third of his mana, Alon conveyed his words to the allied forces.

Then, under the shattered remains of the World Tree, he dropped the seed and shrouded himself in divinity.

However, this divinity— was not the divine form of Kalannon he had used until now—

Fwoooosh—!!!

But the divine power of the “Primordial Elf,” which he had accessed for the first time when he ventured beneath the World Tree.

Then, Alon’s surroundings began to change completely.

On the ashen ground, vibrant green sprouts appeared.

Life began to bloom.

[Fourth, the divinity of green, is regeneration.]

At the same time, Dowon’s advice surfaced in his mind.

“Then it will bring you victory.”

Alon’s final mana spread outward.

His intent and the divine power infused into the seed—

Pop—

Caused the World Tree to sprout.

The World Tree rapidly grew through the germination process in an instant.

From seed to sprout.

From sprout to branch.

From branch to tree.

From tree to a giant tree.

From giant tree—

[!!]

To the World Tree.

It absorbed all of the green divinity Alon held and grew at an overwhelming pace, surpassing even Baarma’s height.

As a result, the divine power of the “Primordial Elf” that Alon possessed— unlike Kalannon’s divinity, vanished entirely as if it had never existed.

The green planet that had existed within his body lost its light and disappeared.

But even though he felt this clearly, Alon didn’t care.

He covered the gray sky with green leaves,

And offered hope to the alliance forces who had only known despair.

That reverence—

Once again gathered around one man.

[!]

Baarma, witnessing it, instinctively reached out his hand to stop the growth of the World Tree.

However—

“Pluton, limited release.”

Unfortunately, Baarma’s movement was halted for a moment by a massive mechanical hand that fell from the sky.

He tried to deflect the giant fist rushing toward him, but things didn’t go as he intended.

And the reason was—

[-!]

A girl who had appeared out of nowhere.

A girl with long, snowy white hair flowing down to her waist stood before Baarma.

Kwa-dudududuk—!!!!

With brilliant, furious purple mana darker than her burning eyes, she completely shattered the  ground beneath her feet and charged toward Baarma.

Then, as the small girl’s kick pierced Baarma’s heart— inside Alon’s body, where the green planet had disappeared, a snowy white planet took its place.

The planet settled in without him realizing it and began to grow.

Alon, without hesitation, seized it—

[You who have glimpsed the fragment— I grant you a law.]

A voice whispered in his ear.

He couldn’t identify who it belonged to, but it was strangely familiar.

But rather than pay attention to that voice now, Alon opened his mouth without hesitation.

The law he had been thinking about from the moment he received that advice until now.

A law meant solely for him.

And—

[I grant it.]

At the moment he heard those final words, Alon opened his eyes.

The scene before him looked the same, but clearly, something had changed.

The World Tree had bloomed completely.

A vivid hope was etched into the soldiers’ eyes.

Yet the number of enemies that needed to be defeated remained the same.

But—

Alon smiled.

A deep smile formed on the face that had been expressionless for so long.

And—

“Reverse Heaven (天).”

A star rose in the gray sky.